MARION HARVIE was a servant-maid in Borrowstounness.
She says, in her answers before the Privy Council, that her
father had sworn the Covenants, so that, in all probability,
she had enjoyed the advantage of a religious education But she was
fifteen before religious teaching produced good effect upon her mind,
and it would seem that it was a sermon of Richard Cameron which
awakened her to a sense of sin and led her to the Redeemer.
Henceforward she embraced every opportunity of hearing the
persecuted preachers. She speaks of having heard Donald Cargill,
John Welch, Archibald Riddell, and Richard Cameron.

She was apprehended in November 1680, through means of a
scheme intended to entrap Mr. Donald Cargill. James Henderson of
North Queensferry, an informer in the service of Middleton, the
governor of Blackness, found out Cargill in Edinburgh, and got him
persuaded to agree to come to Fife and preach. Meanwhile, a party of
soldiers were lying in wait at Muttonhole, not far from Edinburgh on the
way to Queensferry. James Skene, Archibald Stewart, Mrs Muir, and
Marion Harvie, set out on foot, while Donald Cargill and James Boig
were to follow on horseback. When they came to Muttonhole, they
were seized by the soldiers, but, in the confusion, Mrs Muir escaped.
She fled towards Edinburgh, and stopped Cargill and Boig when on
the way, so that they both escaped. Marion Harvie, James Skene,
and Archibald Stewart were brought prisoners to Edinburgh. Henderson,
says Patrick Walker, got the price of blood, and bought or
built a passage-boat, which he called “The Katharine;” but many
feared to cross the water in her. Henderson, after this, turned miserable
and contemptible in the eyes of all well-thinking men, and, some
affirm, died cursing, after he got that reward for his treachery.

Marion Harvie was brought before the Privy Council. Her
answers to the questions put to her form the first part of her Testimony.
There was the same levity in the questions which her enemies
{132}
put to her, as in the examination of Isabel Alison; and Dalziel, with
characteristic ferocity, threatened her with the Boots; yet her demeanour
was calm and dignified.

On the 6th of December, she was brought before the Lord-Justice
and the Commissioners of Justiciary. The books of the
Justiciary Court have preserved the following record of her examination:

“Edinburgh, 6th December 1680.—In presence of the Lords
Justice-Clerk and Commissioners of Justiciary sitting in judgment,
compeared Marion Harvie, prisoner, and being examined, adheres to
the fourth article of the fanatics’ New Covenant, the same being read
to her, and disowns the king and his authority, and the authority of the
Lords of Justiciary, and adheres and abides at the treasonable Declaration
emitted at Sanquhar, and approves of the same, and says it
was lawful to kill the Archbishop of St Andrews, when the Lord
raised up instruments for that effect, and that he was as miserable
and perjured a wretch as ever betrayed the Kirk of Scotland; declares
that ministers brought them up to these principles, and now they
have left them, and that she has heard Mr John Welch and Mr
Riddell preach up these principles she now owns, and blesses God
she ever heard them preach so, for her soul has been refreshed by
them. She approves of Mr Cargill’s excommunicating the king.
Declares she can write, but refuses to sign the same.

“Sic subscribitur,

“MAITLAND.

“DAVID BALFOUR.

“DA. FALCONER.

“ROGER HOG.”

Marion Harvie’s indictment was drawn up from this statement, and
she was tried on Monday the 17th of January 1681. “Her discourse
before the Justiciary Court” forms part of her Testimony. She was
found guilty, but sentence was delayed till the following Friday. Her
sentence was, “that she be taken to the Grassmarket of Edinburgh,
upon Wednesday next, the 26th instant, betwixt two and four o’clock
in the afternoon, and there to be hanged on a gibbet till she be dead,
and all her lands, heritages, goods, and gear whatsomever, to be
escheat and inbrought to our sovereign lord’s use; which is pronounced
for doom.”

In her Testimony she emphatically condemns her enemies, and
leaves her blood upon their heads. The first compilers of the
{133}
“Cloud,” in a note, remind the reader that such statements are to be
interpreted like those of James Skene, as a warning to persecutors
rather than as manifestations of a revengeful spirit. The Rev. James
Anderson, in his interesting volume, “The Ladies of the Covenant,”
in his notice of Marion Harvie, has very appropriately quoted a
passage from a letter of Gray of Chryston, one who suffered much
himself during those times, to Wodrow, which quite agrees with the
views of the compilers:

“As to their leaving their blood upon their enemies in general,
or upon particular persons accessory to their trouble, I could never
understand that they meant more by it than the fastening a conviction
upon a brutish, persecuting generation, who vainly justified themselves
as acting by law, and inferred that not they, but the legislature,
were answerable, if any injustice was done.”

Marion Harvie’s Testimony closes with an account of her last
moments. She preserved her faith and hope and confidence to the
end. When she came to the scaffold, she and Isabel Alison sang the
84th Psalm, and it is said the tune they sung was the fine old tune,
“Martyrs,” verifying the rude lines—

“This is the tune the Martyrs sang
When they were gaun to die,
When at the gallows tree they stood,
Their God to glorifie.”

After reading what was said by her and her fellow-sufferer Isabel
Alison, Peden’s short but characteristic eulogium on them will be felt
to be well merited: “They were two honest, worthy lasses.”

No execution of those cruel times seems to have excited more
sympathy or a deeper interest throughout the country. In the somewhat
coarsely-executed, yet expressive engraving, prefixed to the first
edition of Alexander Shields’ “Hind Let Loose,” published in 1687,
“Women hanged,” evidently Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie,
occupy a place side by side with “The drowned at stakes at sea,”
viz., the Wigtown Martyrs, Margaret Wilson and Margaret M’Lauchlan.
Fountainhall twice notices their end, and once tries to defend
their execution. One of his chronological notes under 1680 is—

“Janet [Isabel] Alison in Perth, and one —— Harvie in Borrowstounness,
two Cameronian women, were hanged at Edinburgh, 26th
January 1681; they called the king and bishops perjured bloody
{134}
men. There were five other women executed with them for murder
of their children.”

In his “Historical Observes” he has this remark, under date—26th
January 1681.—“There were hanged at Edinburgh, two
women of ordinary rank, for their uttering treasonable words and
other principles and opinions contrary to all our government; the
one was named Janet [Isabel] Alison, a Perth woman, the other
[Marion] Harvie, from Borrowstounness. They were of Cameron’s
faction, bigot and sworn enemies to the king and the bishops; of the
same stamp with Rathillet, Skene, Stewart, and Potter; of whom
supra, where we debate how far men (for women are scarce to be
honoured with that martyrdom, as they think it), are to be punished
capitally for their bare perverse judgment without acting. Some
thought that threatening to drown them privately in the North Loch,
without giving them the credit of a public suffering, would have more
effectually reclaimed them than any arguments which were used; and
the bringing them to a scaffold but disseminates the infection. However,
the women proved very obstinate, and for all the pains taken
would not acknowledge the king to be their lawful prince, but called
him a perjured bloody man. At the stage, one of them told, so long
as she followed and heard the curates, she was a swearer, Sabbath-breaker,
and with much aversion read the Scriptures; but found
much joy upon her spirit since she followed the conventicle
preaching.”

Mr. George Johnston, referred to in the questions, was minister of
Newbattle. He was deprived of his charge by the Act of Council at
Glasgow, 1662. In April 1670, he was seized in Edinburgh on the
charge of frequently keeping conventicles, and confined to the parish
of Borthwick during the Council’s pleasure. In August 1675 his
name, along with Donald Cargill, James Frazer of Brea, and many
others, occurs in the Letters of Intercommuning issued by the
Council. Some time previous to the trial of Marion Harvie he
must have accepted the Indulgence. He survived the Revolution.

As to the “rock, cod, and boboons” spoken of in her answers
before the Privy Council, the rock was a distaff, the staff around
which the flax is arranged, and from which it is drawn for
spinning; the cod, i.e., the pincushion or pillow; and boboons, i.e.,
bobbins, the small pieces of wood with a head on which the thread
is wound, in making lace. The phrase is thus equivalent to spinning
and lace-making.
{135}

Marion Harvie leaves her testimony on “Andrew Cunningham,
that gave me my doom.” The Doomster, or Dempster, was at
that time an officer of the Court of Justiciary, whose duty it was to
proclaim formally the extreme sentence of the law on the prisoner at
the bar. This odious office was usually held by the public
executioner.—ED.]

The laſt Speech and Teſtimony

of

MARION HARVIE,

Who lived at Burrowſtounneſs, and

Suffered at Edinburgh,

January 26. 1681.

An Account of her Answers before the Privy Council.

THey asked first, How long is it since ye saw Mr. D. Cargill? I
said, I cannot tell particularly when I saw him. They said, Did
ye see him within these three Months? I said, it may be I have.
They said, Do ye own his Covenant? I said, What Covenant?
Then they read it to me; and I said, I did own it. They said, Do ye own the
Sanquhar Declaration? I answered, Yes. They said, do ye own these to
be lawful? I said, Yes; because they are according to the Scriptures,
and our Covenants, which ye swore yourselves, & my father swore them.
They said, Yea, but the Covenant does not bind you to deny the King’s
Authority. I said, So long as the king held by the Truths of GOD,
which he swore, we were obliged to own him; but when he brake his
oath, and robbed Christ of His Kingly Rights, which do not belong to
him, we were bound to disown him, and you also. They said, Do ye
know what ye say? I said, Yes. They said, Were ye ever mad? I answered, I
have all the Wit that ever GOD gave me. Do you see any mad Act
in me? They said, Where was you born? I ans. In Borrowstounness.
They asked, What was your Occupation there? I told them, I served.
They said, Did ye serve the woman that gave Mr. Donald Cargill Quarters?
I said, That is a Question which I will not answer. They said,
Who did ground you in these Principles? I answered, CHRIST, by his Word.
They said, Did not Ministers ground you in these? I answered, when
the ministers preached the Word, the Spirit of GOD backed and confirmed
it to me. They said, Did ye ever see Mr. John Welch [of Irongray]? I said,
{87}
Yes; my soul hath been refreshed by hearing him. They asked, If ever
I heard Mr. Archibald Riddell? I answered, Yes; and I bless the LORD,
that ever I heard him. They said, Did ever they preach to take up
arms against the King? I said, I have heard them Preach to defend the
Gospel, which we are all sworn to do. They asked, If ever I sware to
Mr. Donald Cargill’s Covenant? I said, No; but we are bound to own it.
They said, Did ye ever hear Mr. George Johnston? I said, I am not concerned
with him. I would not hear him, for he is joined in a Confederacy
with yourselves. They said, Did ye hear the Excommunication at
the Torwood? I said, No; I could not win [get] to it. They asked if I did approve
of it? I answered, Yes. They asked, If I approved of the killing the Lord St. Andrews?
I said, In so far as the Lord raised up instruments, to execute his
just Judgments upon him, I have nothing to say against it; for he was
a perjured Wretch, and a betrayer of the Kirk of Scotland. Then they
asked, What Age I was of? I answered, I cannot tell. They said among
themselves, That I would be about Twenty Years of Age, and began to
regret my Case, and said, Would I cast away myself so? I answered, I love
my Life, as well as any of you do; but would not redeem it upon sinful
Terms; for Christ says, He that seeks to save his Life shall lose it. [Luke 17.33.]
They said, A Rock, the Cod, and Boboons, were as fit for me to meddle with
as these things: Then one of them asked, when the Assize should sit?
and some other of them answered, On Monday. Then they asked, If I
could write? I answered, Yes. Will you subscribe, said they, what you have
said? I answered, No. They bade the Clerk set down, that I could write, but
refused to subscribe. Then they asked, if I desired to converse with
any of our Ministers? I said, What ministers? They said, Mr. Riddel.
I said, What would ye have me to do with him? They said, He might
convince you of that Sin. I said, What Sin? They said, The Sin of Rebellion.
I smiled, and said, If I were as free of all Sin, as the Sin of Rebellion,
I should be an innocent Creature. They asked, If they should
bring Mr. Riddel to me. I said, It was an evidence he was not right,
since they had him so much at their Will. And I told them, I would
have none of their Ministers. This is all I can remember at this present.

Her Diſcourſe before the Justiciary Court.

FIrst, I was brought and set in the pannel [i.e., at the bar], with the Murderers,
and they read over my indictment, and asked me, If I did confess
with these things? I answered, Yes. Then they read the Sanquhar
Declaration, and asked, If I owned it? I answered, Yes. They read that
paper which they call the New Covenant, and asked, if I owned it? I
answered, Yes. Then I protested they had nothing to say against me, as to
matter of Fact; but only because I owned Christ and his Truth, and persecuted
Gospel and Members, of which [I said] ye have hanged some, others you
have beheaded and quartered quick, [i.e., alive, as Hackston of Rathillet]. To that they replied nothing;
{88}
but called the Assizers, [jurymen], who had no will to appear, till they were about to
fine them, and then they came forward. One of them said, He did not
desire to be one of the Assize, but they would have him. He bade them
read our Confession; for he knew not what they had to say against us.
They bade him hold up his Hand, and swear, that he would be true, and
he could not, but fell on trembling. The Advocate bade the Assizers look
if I had anything to say against them. I said, I knew none of them, but
what were all bloody Butchers together. And when the Assize were
set in a Place by themselves, I said to them, Now, beware what ye are
doing; for they have nothing to say against me; but only for owning
Jesus Christ and his persecuted Truths: For ye will get my Blood upon
your Heads. So that Man that fell on trembling before, desired them to
read my Confession to him, and they read it. And after that the Advocate
had a discourse to them, and said, Ye know these women are guilty
of Treason. The Assize said, They are not guilty of matters of Fact. He
said, but Treason is Fact, and taking [correcting] himself again, he said, It’s true, it’s
but Treason in their Judgment; but go on according to our Law, & if ye
will not do it, I will proceed; And when they had read my Confession,
they had set down, that I had said the Ministers had taught me these Principles.
I said, That is a Lie, and it is like the rest of your Lies; so I
said, That it was Christ by His Word, that taught me. They answered
nothing to that; but said, Would I own the rest of my Confession? I
answered, Yes. The Advocate said, We do not desire to take their Lives; for
we have dealt with them many Ways, and sent Ministers to deal with
them, and we cannot prevail with them. I said, We are not concerned
with you and your Ministers. The Advocate said, It is not for Religion,
that we are pursuing you; but for Treason. I answered, It is for Religion, that
ye are pursuing me; for I am of the same Religion that ye are all sworn
to be of; but ye are all gone blind. I am a true Presbyterian in my
Judgment. So they put the Assize into a Room by themselves, and removed
me without the Guard, into another Room; then they read the
Delay till Friday at 12 of the Clock: And I charged them before the
Tribunal of GOD, as they should answer there; For, said I, ye have
nothing to say to me, but for my owning the persecuted Gospel.

The Dying Teſtimony and Last Words of Marion Harvie.

CHristian Friends and Acquaintances, I being to lay down my Life
on Wednesday next, January 26, 1681, I thought fit to let it be
known to the World wherefore I lay down my Life, and to
let it be seen that I Die not as a Fool or as an evil doer, or as a busy
body in other men’s matters; no, it is for adhering to the Truths of
JESUS CHRIST, and avowing Him to be King in Zion and Head of His{89}Church; and the Testimony against the ungodly Laws of Men, and
their robbing CHRIST of His Rights, and usurping His prerogative
Royal, which I durst not but testify against: And I bless His Holy
Name, that ever he called me to bear witness against the sins of the times,
and the defections of upsitten [indifferent, callous] Ministers and Professors. (1st) I adhere
to the Holy and sweet Scriptures of GOD, which have been my
Rule in all I have done, in which my Soul has been refreshed. (2ly)
I adhere to the Confession of Faith, because agreeable to the Scriptures.
(3ly) I adhere to the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. (4ly) I adhere
to the Covenants, National and Solemn League, and the work of Reformation.
(5ly) I adhere to all the Faithful Testimonies which have
been left by our Faithful Ministers of JESUS CHRIST, either on
scaffolds or Fields. (6ly) I adhere to the Papers found at the Queensferry,
on Henry Hall. (7ly) I adhere to the Declaration at Sanquhar,
and the Testimony at Rutherglen, and the Papers found on worthy
Mr. Richard Cameron. (8ly) I adhere to the Excommunication at the
Tor-wood. (9ly) I adhere to the Excommunication of the Bishops and
their underlings [The bishops were deposed and excommunicated by the General Assembly, at Glasgow, session 20, December 13, 1638.—ED.]; and I die in the Faith of it, that the Lord hath ratified
that in heaven, which His Faithful Servants have done on Earth, as
to the casting out these Traitors to GOD out of the Church. And
now I desire to bless the LORD for my Lot. My lot is fallen [to me] in
pleasant Places, and I have a goodly Heritage. [Psalm 16.6.]

I leave my Blood upon the Traitor that Sits upon the Throne;
then on James, Duke of York, who was sitting in the Council, when I
was Examined the first Day. And I leave my Blood on the Bloody
crew, that call themselves Rulers. And I leave it on James Henderson
in the North-Ferry, who was the Judas that sold Archibald Stewart
and Mr. Skene, and me, to the Bloody Soldiers, for so much Money.
I leave my blood on Sergeant Warrock, who took me, and brought me
to Prison. I leave my Blood on the Criminal Lords, as they call
themselves, and especially that Excommunicate tyrant George Mackenzie,
the Advocate, and the 15 Assizers; and on Andrew Cunningham, that
gave me my Doom; and on that Excommunicate Traitor Thomas Dalziel,
who was Porter that Day that I was first before them, and threatened
me with the Boots.[1]

I give my Testimony against the burning of the Covenants, which
were solemnly sworn by the three Nations with uplifted Hands to the
great GOD of heaven and earth. I leave my testimony against all
the bloodshed and massacres of the Lord’s people, either on Scaffolds
or in the Fields. I protest against banishings and Finings, and cruel
Murderings, especially the inhuman Murder of worthy David Hackston.
{90}
I leave my testimony against the paying of the Cess, employed
for the bearing down the Preaching of the Gospel, and the taking and
killing the poor followers of JESUS CHRIST. I leave my Testimony
against the professors, that say this is not the Truth of GOD for which
I suffer, and call the way of GOD Delusion. I leave my Testimony
against Mr. Archibald Riddell, who became Servant to the Bloody Lords,
and made it his work to make me deny CHRIST, and betake myself
to the ungodly Laws of Men, and to call the Truths of GOD Delusions,
which I am to Seal with my Blood; And I rejoice that ever
He counted me worthy so to do. O! I may say, What am I, or what is
my Father’s House? That He should have called me out to Seal His
truths with my Blood? — which Truths, both Ministers and Professors
have counted prudence to disown and deny; for which the Land will be
made to mourn, and sorely to smart, ere all be done. I leave my Testimony
against Mr. John Blair, that said I had no more Grace than his Staff
had, and was Witness to my Sentence that Day I got it; and his
Wife, that said I had no more Grace nor [than] her old Shoes, as if Grace
were not free, and as though CHRIST had not enough to give me. I leave
my Testimony against both Ministers and Professors that have joined
themselves in any of these courses of Defection with the Enemies,
and are fast in their Camps.

I leave my Testimony against Popery, Prelacy, Quakerism, and Indulgency,
and desire to mourn for it that ever I joined with them in hearing
them, or any of those that connive at them. I leave my Testimony
against all Jesuitical Principles, although our Professors say that I adhere
to them; I deny it; and I take GOD to be my Witness, that I
hate all Opinions that are contrary to the sound Truths of GOD. And
since ever GOD called me to follow His persecuted Gospel, it was still my
desire to stick close by him, and the Rule he has set down for poor sinners
to walk by. And it was always my Rejoicing to serve him, and to act
and do for his Truth and to vindicate it. And many a sore heart I have
had with them in vindicating his Truths, when they have been denying
them, and casting Dirt in the Faces of faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ;
and I desire all these, that are endeavouring to contend for Christ and his
Truths, that they would be faithful in their Witnessing for him, and
eschew the least appearance of sin. For I, a dying Witness of Christ, obtest
you, as you will answer, when ye stand before him, in the
day of your appearance, that ye be faithful in owning him, in all his
Truths, and not yield a hoof to these ungodly, Perjured, Bloody and
Excommunicate Traitors, and Tyrants; For there is much advantage
to be had in faithfulness for Christ; and that I may set to my Seal
to the Truth of. And I think, CHRIST is taking a narrow [close] view of his
Followers at this time; for there are few that yield a hair-breadth of the
Truths of GOD that readily win [get] to their feet again; but go from one
degree of Defection to another.
{91}

And again I desire to bless and Magnify the LORD, for my Lot,
and may say, He hath brought me to the Wilderness to allure me there, and
speak comfortably to my Soul. It was but little of Him I knew when I
came to Prison; but now He has said to me, Because He Lives, I shall
live also; and He has told me, I am He, that hath blotted out thine
Iniquity for My own Name’s sake. Kind has He been to me, since He
brought me out to witness for Him. I have never sought anything
from Him, that was for His Glory, since I came to Prison, but He
granted me my desire. For the most part I have found Him in everything
that hath come in my way, ordering it Himself, for His own
Glory. And now I Bless Him, that thoughts of Death are not terrible
to me. He hath made me as willing to lay down my Life for Him, as
ever I was willing to Live in the World. And now, ye that are His
Witnesses, be not afraid to adventure upon the Cross of CHRIST, For
His yoke is easy, and His Burden is light. For many times I have been
made to think strange, what makes Folk cast at [i.e., object to] the Cross of CHRIST,
that has been so light to me, that I found no burden of it at all;
He bore me and it both. Now, let not the frowns of Men; and their
flatteries, put you from your Duty. Keep up your Societies, and the
assembling of yourselves together, for there is much profit to be found
in it. Many times hath it been found comfortable to me, to hear of
the few in Scotland in which CHRIST was Delighting; and that there
was much love to GOD’s Glory, and Zeal for His Honour amongst them.

Now, be humble and lie in the Dust, and never give over crying
in behalf of the Church, which is so small that it can scarcely be
discerned; and never give over till He appear, for I think He is near at
hand. O watch! and double your Diligence, and hold fast till he come,
and let none take your Crown, for He is good to the Soul that seeks Him. [Rev. 2.25; 3.11; Lam. 3.25.]
If I were to Live again, I would let that Perjured Crew see, that I should
be more guilty of that which they call Rebellion, in Serving my Lovely
King, and in acting and doing for him and his Glory, if he called me
to it; And it is my grief that I have not been more faithful for my
Master Christ. All His dealings with me have been in love and in
Mercy. His Corrections have been all in love and free Grace. O! free
love! O! I am oft made to wonder what it was that made him take
a Blasphemer to witness for him and his Truths. I may say, I am a
Brand plucked out of the Fire, [Zech. 3.2]; I am a Limb of the Devil pluck’t out
from his fire-side. O! I am made to wonder and admire at his condescending
Love!

Now I leave my Testimony against Jean Forrest, for
saying that I was going to the Grave with a lie in my right hand, and
charging my Blood on my own head. O my friends, come out from among
them, and touch not the unclean thing. [2 Cor. 6.17.] It will never be well,
till there be a separation from sin. I bless the Lord, that ever I heard
Mr. Cargill, that faithful Servant of Jesus Christ: I bless the Lord, that
{92}
ever I heard Mr. Richard Cameron, my Soul has been refreshed with
the hearing of him, particularly at a Communion in Carrick, on these
words in 85th Psalm verse 8: The Lord will speak peace to his Saints and
People, but let them not return back to folly. Now, I leave my Testimony
against all the backsliding Ministers, who, when I began to hear the Gospel,
Preached the same Truths, which I am to lay down my Life for at
this time, but now they are joined in a combination against GOD, and
for the most part are all at the Enemies’ will, for when I got my Sentence,
the bloody Traitors promised to bring any of our own Ministers
to us, when before them; and so this gives me ground to say, they are
become their Servants.

Now, the LORD knows I have a sore Heart to mention these things;
but when I saw some of them there, and they offering us any of the
rest, it gives me ground to set it down with a sore Heart. Now, what
shall I say? I have sinned against Him, and I am guilty of the defections,
for which my carcase must lie in the Wilderness, and not see the
King come Home to his Habitation. But O! I am content, and heartily
content, that He gives me my Soul for a Prey; and well is me for
it; I think myself not behind. O my Love! O my Love, O my
Love! My altogether Lovely CHRIST. [Cant. 5.16.] The common report through
the Country is, That I might have had my Life on very easy Terms;
but I could have it on no easier Terms than the denying of my Lord
and Master, CHRIST. First, they asked if I would retract my former
Confession, and particularised all the Papers I had owned before,
and if I would not call Charles Stuart an Usurper, and the Devil’s
Vicegerent. I told them I would not go back in anything, for ye
have nothing, (said I,) to lay to me, but for the avowing CHRIST to
be King in Zion, and head of His own Church. And they said, they did
not usurp Christ’s Crown: But I said they were blinded and did
not see. They said there were but a few of us for these Principles;
I said they had all the wyte [blame] of it, and it was most bitter to us, that
our Ministers had spoken against these Truths. And indeed I think
they had not been so cruel to me, were it not these Ministers. And
so I think our Ministers are not free of our Blood; for when they
spake against us and the Way, it hardened these bloody Traitors, and
emboldened them to take our Lives.

I leave my Testimony against them, for they have caused many poor
things to err from the Way of GOD, and many have made Ministers
their Rule, and so the Blind have led the Blind, and both have fallen into
the Ditch together. And some think and say: O! can we quit so many
Godly Ministers? We dow not [i.e., cannot bring ourselves to] quit them. But I assure you ye shall get
a share of the Wrath and Stroke which GOD hath prepared for these
Backsliders and Betrayers of their Trust. O, I wonder what is the
reason that Men count it their Wisdom to deny GOD, who has been so
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kind to them, and who have many a day delighted to commend his
love to me, with the Hazard of their Lives; for which I shall be a Witness
against them. Now, I have no more to say: be faithful unto the
Death, or else, woe! woe! woe! to you that are owning him at this Day,
if ye do not own him in all his Offices, as King, Priest, and Prophet.
O, my dear love! well is me that ever he let me know that his Love
was better than Life. Woe to that Creature that will not love my lovely
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, farewell Holy and sweet Scriptures, which
were aye [ever] my Comfort in the midst of all my Difficulties. Farewell
Faith, farewell Hope, farewell Wanderers, who have been comfortable
to my Soul, in the hearing them commend Christ’s Love. Farewell
Brethren, farewell Sisters, farewell Christian Acquaintances; farewell Sun,
Moon, and Stars! And now, welcome my lovely and heartsome Christ
Jesus, into whose Hands I commit my Spirit throughout all Eternity.
I may say, Few and evil have the days of the Years of my Pilgrimage
been, [Gen. 47.9,] I being about 20 years of Age.

From the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, the Woman-House on the East
Side of the Prison, Jan. 11th, 1681.

MARION HARVIE.

This martyr, though both young in Years, and of the weaker sex (which
heightens the discovery, how Brutally furious and mad these Persecutors
were,) was so singularly assisted of the Lord in his Cause, and had such
discoveries of His special Love to her Soul, that she was nothing terrified
by her Adversaries [Phil. 1.28,] when she was brought from the Tolbooth to the
Council-House, to be carried to her Execution. As she came out of the
Tolbooth Door, several Friends attending her, she was observed to say,
with a Surprising Cheerfulness and Air of Heavenly Ravishment: Behold,
I hear my Beloved saying unto me, Arise my love, my Fair One, and
come away. [Cant. 2.13.] And being brought to the Council, Bishop Paterson being
Resolved, seeing he could not destroy her Soul, yet to grieve and vex it,
said, “Marion, you said you would never hear a Curate, now you shall
be forced to hear one,” upon which he ordered one of his Suffragans,
whom he had prepared for the purpose, to pray. So soon as he began,
she said to her Fellow-Prisoner, Isabel Alison, “Come, Isabel, let’s Sing the
23dPsalm,” which accordingly they did, Marion Repeating the Psalm,
Line by Line, without Book, which drowned the Voice of the Curate,
and extremely confounded the Persecutors. Being come to the Scaffold,
after singing the 84th Psalm, and reading the 3d of Malachi, she said: “I
am come here to-day, for avowing Christ to be head of His Church, and
King in Zion. O! seek him, sirs, seek him, and ye shall find him. I
sought him, and I found him; I held him, and would not let him go.” [Cant. 3.4.] Then
she briefly narrated the manner how she was taken, and recapitulated
in short the heads of her written Testimony, saying to this effect, “I
was going out of Edinburgh to hear the Persecuted Gospel in the Fields;
was taken by the way with Soldiers, and brought in to the Guard;
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and afterwards I was brought to the Council, and they Questioned me
if I knew Mr. Donald Cargil, or if I heard him Preach? I answered,
I bless the Lord I heard him, and my Soul was refreshed with hearing
him, for he is a faithful Minister of Jesus Christ. They asked, if I adhered
to the Papers gotten at the Ferry. I said I did own them, and all
the rest of Christ’s Truths. If I would have denied any of them, my
Life was in my offer; but I durst not do it, no, not for my Soul. E’re I
wanted [lacked, missed] an hour of His presence, I’d rather die ten Deaths. I durst not speak
against them lest I should have sinned against GOD. I adhere to the
Bible and Confession of Faith, Catechisms and Covenants, which are
according to this Bible (whereupon she clapped her hands upon the
Bible.) I also adhere to the Testimonies given by the Faithful Witnesses
of Christ, that have gone before us on Scaffolds and in the Fields.
I leave my Testimony against all Quakers, Jesuits, Indulgences, and
all Profane and Ungodly Persons, and mainly all Covenant-breakers
and Persecutors of his Way and Truths, which I am come here to Seal
with my Blood; against all payers of Cess, and Bonders, and against
all Oppression or Murdering. They say, I would Murder; but I
declare I am free of all matters of Fact. I could never take the Life of
a Chicken but my Heart shrinked. But it is only for my Judgment of
things, I am brought here. I leave my Blood on the Council and the
Duke of York.” At this the Soldiers interrupted her and would not allow
her to Speak any. But she cried out: “I leave my Blood on all Ungodly
and Profane Wretches.” The most of her Discourse was of GOD’s
love to her, and the Commendation of Free Grace; and she declared
she had much of the LORD’s presence in Prison, and said, “I bless
the LORD the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” [Psalm 124.7.] And when she came
to the Ladder Foot, she Prayed. And going up the Ladder, she said,
“O! my fair one, my lovely one, come away;” and sitting down on the
ladder she said: “I am not come here for Murder, for they have no
matter of Fact to charge me with; but only my Judgment. I am about
20 Years of Age. At 14 or 15 I was a hearer of the Curates and Indulged,
and while I was a hearer of these, I was a Blasphemer and
Sabbath-breaker, and a Chapter of the Bible was a burden to me; but
since I heard this Persecuted Gospel, I durst not Blaspheme, nor
break the Sabbath, and the Bible became my delight.” With this the
Major called to the Hangman to cast her over, and the Murderer presently
choked her.

[Robert Wodrow adds: “I am informed they were executed with some
three or four wicked women, guilty of murdering their own children,
and other villanies, which was very grievous to these two. One of
the Episcopal ministers of the town, who waited upon the others on
the scaffold, railed bitterly upon these sufferers, and assured them
they were in the road to damnation; while he, without any evidence
of penitence, was sending the other wicked wretches straight to
heaven. However, Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie were not
commoved, but sang some suitable Psalms on the scaffold, and prayed,
and died with much composure and joy.”—ED.]

Footnotes:

1.
Understand this paragraph with the caution given Page 62 [from the original edition of the Cloud]:
These and the like sentences, which may possibly be met with in some other
testimonies, ought not to be mistaken as the effects of a revengeful ungospel
Spirit, but rather as a simple declaration of their being guilty of blood in condemning
them; to serve as a warning to the persecutors, not to proceed further in
these wicked courses, and to waken them to repentance (if possible) for what they
had already done; and is much parallel in its nature with that of Jeremiah, in
his apology before the princes, chap. 26.15.